


They Call This Mourning

by geritapancake



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Attempted Murder, Childhood Friends, F/M, FACE family dynamics, Fem!China - Freeform, Friendship, G8 Plus China, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Murder, Murder Mystery, Other, Putting The Fun In Funeral Am I Right?, Suicide Attempt, Thriller, mtf!china, qpps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2019-10-17 22:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17569298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geritapancake/pseuds/geritapancake
Summary: “We can plan for the future all we want.” His voice finally rang out, grabbing the attention of those who had strayed away into their mind somewhere. “We can know who we want to marry, know where we want to live, know what we want to be. But, today, life has proven, if wants to take away your entire future, your entire world, it will.”-With summer coming to a sad end a group of childhood friends gets ready to take on high school once more, but a blight of murders knocks them off their guard.





	1. “if i could go back to the day we met, i’m sorry, but i would turn around and walk the other way.”

_“if i could go back to the day we met, i’m sorry, but i would turn around and walk the other way.”_

 

**CHAPTER 1**

  


The makeshift microphone was passed to Alfred and his eyes lit up.

“Really?!” He exclaimed. To this Arthur rolled his eyes.

“Yes, dimwit, now just get on with it,” Arthur replied snappily. Feliciano clapped his hands and whooped, cheering Alfred on. Alfred jumped up onto the small ottoman and the music started blaring. Laughter was already erupting.

 _“I’ve been cheated by you since I don’t know when!”_ He blared, pointing to the others dramatically. _“So I made up my mind it must come to an end.”_

 _“Look at me now!”_ Feliciano couldn’t resist jumping in, and he hopped off his place on the couch to join Alfred.

 _“Will I ever learn?”_ Alfred sang, hopping off the ottoman and pushing it to the side to stand by Feliciano.

 _“I don’t know how, but I suddenly lose control.”_ The two leaned onto each other and both dramatically placed their hands on their heads. _“There’s a fire within my soul.”_

_“Just one look and I can hear a bell ring. One more look and I forget everything.”_

Francis pushed himself off the couch and dragged Arthur with him.

“Bloody frog, unhand me!” Arthur protested.

“Oh just shut up and dance with me!” He laughed, twirling Arthur around. It was nice, really, what those nine had. They had spent all day hanging out, laughing and goofing around, playing card games and having movie marathons. Naturally, Yao won any card game they played. Unless it was Texas Holdem, then Arthur won since he was so good at reading his friends.

Their small karaoke session had only started around an hour ago, even though the idea had been suggested by Alfred and Feliciano nearly a million times during the day. The mic had been tossed around a few times, going to Arthur numerous times and being refused by him all those time. Francis still managed to convince him to sing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles with him, it was their favorite song so Francis knew that he could never pass it up.

It seemed like the fun was just beginning, but it was sadly already one in the morning, and due to the end of summer being a week or so ago, they had to be at school in a few hours. Still, none of them had the heart to put an end to the day.

-

 

Yao made her way into the cafeteria, drifting over to the group’s usual table. Per usual, Arthur was there first and Yao came at a close second. Today he looked upset, well more so than usual. He seemed to be having a fight with himself, twiddling his thumbs and shaking his leg rapidly. She approached with care, not wanting to scare him. For a second she wondered if she should just wait for Francis to arrive and talk to him, but she knew something had happened between them recently so she decided against it.

“Arthur?” She cooed, and just as she expected he jumped slightly.

“Oh, Y-Yao? I didn’t see you there.” He said, visibly trying to avoid eye contact with Yao whilst also trying to be polite.

“Mind if I sit next to you today? You seem frazzled.” She asked quietly. He looked almost relieved.

“Yeah.” He paused as Yao took the seat next to him. He scanned the room for a second. “I can’t help but get this feeling? Like something’s wrong?”

“How so?” She pushed.

“I’m not sure exactly. For the past few days I’ve had this uneasy feeling, and I can’t shrug it off. It feels almost like someones watching us,” He paused for only a second. “And I know how cliche that sounds, but you know I’m never wrong about these kinds of things. You’ve felt it too, right?”

Yao hummed quietly. “Yeah. I’ll admit that the past few days have felt a little off. I was walking home with Ivan and he wouldn’t stop checking behind us.” She caught sight of Arthur’s shaking hands and bit her tongue before she said anymore. “Let’s move onto other matters, shall we?” She said as she rummaged through her backpack. She held a small, wrapped box up to Arthur.

“What is this? My birthday isn’t in months.” He inquired, carefully grabbing the box from Yao’s hands and inspected it. She hummed quietly again.

“I went to a small antique shop and it reminded me of you. I can’t just be nice for no reason?” She pouted.

“ _Well_.” Arthur teased and Yao gave him a playful jab. They both snickered. Arthur opened the small box and inside was a delicate teacup, beautifully carved. “Woah.” He said in awe.

“I thought the same thing when I saw it. Well, I thought something more on the lines of: ‘Woah! Arthur’s going to love this in his collection!’”

“Thank you.” He grinned, the past topic completely pushed to the back of his head.

Feliciano, Kiku, and Ludwig could be seen in the distance. They were all holding hands, and Feliciano was beaming like a madman. He momentarily let go of the two’s hands to wave wildly at Yao and Arthur. The two waved back. Ivan was a bit behind the three and he sent a small wave to Yao, to which she quickly returned. The twins could also be seen heading over to their table, exiting the busy lunch line.

“Where’s Francis?” Matthew asked Arthur.

“How should I know where that stupid frog is. He biked to school with us this morning so unless he checked out he’s got to be here.” Arthur replied, a sharp edge to his words. Yao was a bit confused, the two were perfectly fine last night. She knew something happened a week or so ago, but it had to have been big to still be a problem. The two argued a lot, but they were still best friends.

“Well, he was in my second block but he didn’t show up to third.” Feliciano piped in, opening up his lunchbox. Yao did her signature hum to this.

“You can have some of my food if you want Arthur.” Kiku offered, pushing his bento box forwards a little. Yao pushed hers a little towards him too.

“Yeah, same here.” She offered as well. Francis always brought Arthur his lunch, or they just shared.

“No, I’m fine.” He tried to decline, but Yao wasn’t going to have it.

“Arthur you need to eat something.” She said sternly. She had a reputation of being the group’s mom, alongside Francis. She always made sure everyone was feeling well. Arthur grabbed something out of her lunchbox. Alfred started snickering but he shut up when Yao sent a short glare his way.

Chatter started up and plans for the next weekend were already being made. By the end of lunch, Francis was still a no-show. The bell rang and the group started heading their separate ways.

“Hey, Yao.” Arthur pulled her aside. “I’m gonna go look for Francis and I’ll probably be late. Just tell the teacher that I was feeling queasy and I headed to the nurse.” Yao nodded.

“If you need me just text me.”

 

-

 

Arthur had been meandering the halls for a few minutes. Their school wasn’t too big, so that made it easier to search but he knew that Francis wasn’t going to be here. It was just odd for Francis to not tell Arthur that he had gotten checked out. Arthur could only assume that he wanted to avoid Arthur so he skipped, or he just went home. He was about to head out the school’s back doors and go see if Francis was at his house. If he was feeling sick or even just upset, no matter how much he didn’t want to see him, he still knew his parents wouldn’t be home for hours and didn’t want him to be lonely. But as he pushed the doors open he heard someone behind him clear their throat.

“Son, where do you think you’re going?” The vice principal asked. Since the only thing out this way was the parking lot, Arthur couldn’t just lie and say he was heading to the gym. And since he didn’t want to risk getting after-school detention and postponing his trip to Francis’ he just decided to be honest.

“My friend got sick and went home, and I’m worried about him, sir. His parents don’t get off work until around ten and since he didn’t call me to tell me he was leaving early like he usually does, I wanted to check up on him.” He confessed. The man looked like he believed him, and Arthur thought that he managed to persuade him.

“I understand, but you can’t just go skipping school. I won’t write you up as long as you go back to your class.”

Arthur sighed and made his way back to his classroom, the vice principal trailing him the whole way there.


	2. “I found love where it wasn’t supposed to be, right in front of me.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to get out, ive been falling out of the Hetalia fandom lately. Sorry about that.

_“i found love where it wasn’t supposed to be, right in front of me.”_

  **chapter 1**

_“You’re moving?!” Arthur yelled, visibly hurt._

_“Arthur, calm down, it won’t be for a while.” Francis tried to comfort the soon to be livid boy. He reached out to grab his hand, but Arthur snatched it away._

_“No! Don’t touch me!” He cried, backing away a little. He sniffled, trying to keep himself from crying. He absolutely loathed crying in public. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”_

_“Because I knew you’d overreact!”_

_“Overreact?!” He howled, he could almost slap Francis right now. “I’m sorry that I’m fucking ‘overreacting’ about the fact that my so called ‘lifelong best friend’ is planning on moving away and leaving me for good!”_

_“Oh, shut up, Arthur! Don’t go putting words in my mouth, it’s not like I_ want _to leave you!” Francis justified._

_“Then why are you moving away from me? I know your parents didn’t just come up with the idea of moving, so what gives?”  His voice was strained._

_“I-” He paused, he_ knew _that Arthur wouldn’t understand. “There are better options for me out there. I was hoping that you could at least pretend to understand that.”_

_There was an awkward pause. “I’m coming with you.” Arthur stated flatly._

_“You can’t just run away.” He reciprocated._

_“Are you gonna try and stop me?”_

_“Well… no. But, be reasonable, Arthur! I’ll come and visit you, and everyone else, too.”_

_Arthur scoffed at that, rolling his eyes. “You mean you’ll make dumb promises and then the minute you move and find new, better friends, you’ll forget about us. Fuck you, I know how this goes and I don’t want to be replaced.”_

_Francis almost laughed. “Forget you?!” He shrieked. “I couldn’t if I_ tried _! Unless you want me to erase my whole lifetime of memories, because if you still aren’t aware of this, you’re in almost every single one of them!”_

_“You’ll just make new ones.” Arthur shot back, deadpan. Francis stomped his foot, he had had enough of this._

_“Dammit, Arthur!” He screamed. “Why are you making this so hard? Don’t you want me to have a good future? A good life?! Don’t you understand that I won’t have that if I stay here?!” As soon as the words came out of his mouth he wished he could take them back. Arthur was nodding his head slowly, tears building up in his eyes._

_“I see now.” He choked, stepping backwards slightly. “We aren’t good enough for you?_ I’m _not good enough for you? That’s what this is all about? A good future? What the fuck about us, Francis? Your friends, no, your family? If it’s gonna be so hard for you to forget me, then why is it so easy for you to leave? Are you even gonna miss me?”_

_“Arthur.” He once again reached out._

_“Don’t! Just don’t, Francis!” Arthur shouted, snatching his hand away. He started walking backwards slowly, turning away and making a dash for his house._

 

-

 

Arthur biked toward Francis’ house. It was an odd feeling, biking alone that is. He couldn’t remember a time when he took his bike out without the company of at least one of his friends. It felt, wrong, like a tiny switch in his life had flipped. But maybe he was just being paranoid. That didn’t sound right though. Arthur had this, knowledge to him. He could feel when something wasn’t right. He was good at reading people, reading the atmosphere. So when Arthur’s brain said something was off, Arthur didn’t take the time to second guess himself.

He had slowed down to almost a stop. Suddenly, a hand on his shoulder. He flung himself off of his bike, screaming loudly. He turned around and quickly threw a fist at whoever was behind him. The boy caught his fist.

“It is okay, Arthur, it is just me.” Ivan whispered. Arthur held his hand to his chest, panting and trying to catch his breath.

“Bloody hell.” He mumbled.

“You have been feeling it too?” Ivan inquired.

“What?” He looked up at him quizzically.

“Something is wrong. I know you’ve felt it. For the past week, it has felt like someone is constantly trailing us, eyes on our backs. Even as we speak I feel it.” He said quietly. Ivan scanned their surroundings.

Arthur nodded his head in silent agreement. He wanted to change the subject, and he wanted to change it now. It was already getting hard to breath, and he wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he was going to cry. He’d admit it. He was scared. He had never felt a gut feeling this strong, it was like everything in him was screaming that something was terribly wrong.

“Where’s Yao?” Arthur asked quietly.

“I had the twins walk her home. She understood, she feels it too. I just hope that the rest of the group knows that something is awry.”

Arthur started walking with his bike, Ivan by his side.

“So why are you here?”

“I-“ Ivan paused. “I do not honestly know. I just had this feeling in my gut. So I came and found you.”

Arthur nodded and the two walked quietly to Francis’ house.

 

-

 

Arthur and Ivan arrived at Francis’ house. Arthur went to knock on the door, but as soon as his hand made contact with the wood it creaked open. His heart dropped.

“ _О боже, нет..._.” Ivan murmured.

Arthur’s eyes widened and he ran in. “Francis!” He whisper yelled, searching around the place. He didn’t know what was going on exactly. His feet were taking him to Francis’ room. He got to the door and opened it haphazardly.

“Fuck.” Arthur whimpered.

“E-excuse me.” Ivan murmured, ducking over and throwing up.

Blood. There was blood everywhere. The window was open, and items were strewn about. And god, did it smell horrible. A hand was all that he could see from where stood. He didn’t dare move to look. He didn’t need to, he knew it was Francis. Francis wouldn’t want that to be his last glimpse of him anyway.

“Call.” He paused. He was dizzy and confused. He was sure that it hadn’t all hit him yet. “Call the Police.”

 

-

 

Arthur stood there for a while, Ivan eventually moved him to go sit down. He was frozen. It was just a nightmare, all he had to do was wait it out and when he woke up he would run to Francis’ house and he’d be there and he’d be okay, right? He moved to pinch himself awake.

“What are you doing?” Ivan asked, grabbing his hand and moved it away from his arm.

“I’m trying to wake myself up from this bloody nightmare.” He mumbled half-heartedly.

 

-

 

The police showed up soon. Questions were flung and the two in all directions.

“What was your relationship with Mr. Bonnefoy.”

“Best friends. We were best friends.” Arthur whispered. “Our mothers were good friends, would still be if my mom didn’t pass away when I was ten. There’s not a single memory of mine where he’s not in it.” The last part was a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure as hell felt like that to him. The women in front of him jotted down his words.

“Do you know of anyone who would possibly want him dead?”

“No” He answered quickly. It was such an absurd question that he gave a small exhale of a laugh. “Murder Francis Bonnefoy? Everyone loved him, they’d sooner kill him with kindness.” This was too much. It wasn’t real, it couldn’t be. Arthur was still too shocked to cry, too shocked to do anything but act like this was all some crazy fever dream.

“Excuse me ma’am, but we need Arthur Kirkland.” Another officer interrupted.

“For what?” She asked.

“The boys parents are here and they are demanding to speak with him.”

 

They walked Arthur out to Misses and Mr Bonnefoy. Before Arthur could say anything, Mrs. Bonnefoy wrapped Arthur up in a hug.

“God help us all, Arthur. God help us all.” She whispered, tears trickling down her face.


	3. "no one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is so late and I'm sorry. It's been real missing them hours for me recently, so I decided to post this. :)  
> A short, and by no means happy, chapter.

**CHAPTER 3**

_"no one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear."_

_-C.S. Lewis_

It was a well-known fact that Arthur and Francis were always bickering, but it was also a well-known fact that they never left each other's side. They sat next to each other, they stood in line next to each other. They even walked each other home after school. Anything they did, the other was there too. Even if the conversation just consisted of low blows and crude jokes, they were always chattering about.

It was a well-known fact that Arthur and Francis couldn’t live without each other. There was never a time when they weren’t there for each other. So when the news got out that Arthur and Ivan had discovered Francis’s dead body, everyone feared for the worst.

It had been a few weeks since the murder and the police had already given up. Everyone agreed that it would be best to just lay the poor boy to rest. The funeral was dull, though the sun was still up and the birds were still chirping. Arthur sat in between Yao and Alfred, Yao clasping onto Arthur’s hand, trying to keep him in the real world. They were about to play a song, Francis’s favorite. _I Wanna Hold Your Hand_ boomed through the speakers, and Arthur thought he was going to throw up. Just a few weeks ago the whole group was laughing and having fun. Having pillow fights and karaoking.

“Arthur,” Yao whispered from beside him. “It’s your time to go up there. If you want I can go up with you.” She cooed. It was hard for all of them. They had spent every night since it happened at each other’s houses. None of them wanted to leave each other’s side, and who could blame them. They hadn’t been to school for a while either.

“I’m fine, Yao, thank you.” He responded hoarsely. He walked up onto the small platform. He looked awful, he hadn’t slept in around a week and he could barely keep down the food he shoveled into his mouth. He didn’t know what he was going to say, but Francis’s parents wanted him to give a small speech.

“Francis Bonnefoy was-“ _fuck,_ he was already starting to tear up. “the closest damn thing to a goddess I’ll ever see.” He exhaled a small laugh. “Best thing that ever happened to me. And I sure as hell know that I wouldn’t be the same without him.” He had to pause for a little, browsing around the crowd. His friends were either crying or softly comforting others, Matthew could be seen sobbing into Alfred’s arms and Feliciano was staring blankly at the ground. Arthur caught Yao’s eyes, she sent him a sad but reassuring smile before turning back to comfort her friends. It seemed like everything was going in slow motion

“We can plan for the future all we want.” His voice finally rang out, grabbing the attention of those who had strayed away into their mind somewhere. “We can know who we want to marry, know where we want to live, know what we want to be. But, today, life has proved, if it wants to take away your entire future, your entire _world_ , it will.”


End file.
